—From Franklin, Tenn.

Nailed: In the wake of a NY Times expose of health hazards and wage theft in the thriving nail salon industry, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered emergency measures to inspect the parlors, protect salon workers, and pay them back wages.

The Times found that among 100 manicurists, about 75 percent were paid less than minimum wage. Many have to pay a “training fee” to the owners to start work, and are not paid until they are deemed competent. They develop ailments working with chemicals.

Most of the manicurists are Asian immigrants in the country illegally, making them vulnerable to abuse.

Cuomo said in a statement, “We will not stand idly by as workers are deprived of their hard-earned wages and robbed of their most basic rights.”

Alternate History: Famed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh writes in the London Review of Books that the Obama administration lied about how the US found and killed Osama bin Laden. Based mostly on a single unnamed source, Hersh says that bin Laden was being held as a prisoner by the Pakistani intelligence agency and his location was revealed by an agency informer in exchange for a $25 million reward.

Heavy Weather: Two people are dead after a storm hit a trailer park in Nashville, Arkansas. Also late Sunday at least 26 people were injured when a tornado hit the Texas town of Van.

Oil and Sand: Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman is skipping a summit meeting of Arab leaders with President Obama in an apparent show of displeasure over US attempts to improve relations with Iran, a regional adversary. The king is sending his interior minister instead.

As president Obama has negotiated with Iran over its nuclear capabilities, Saudi Arabia has been bombing rebels in Yemen in what amounts to a proxy war with Iran.

World: Twenty-two people are dead after a clash between Macedonian security forces and former members of the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army. Eight security troops and 14 gunmen were killed. Ethnic Albanians from Kosovo have been pressing for the creation of an Albanian state within Macedonia.

Business of Journalism: The Huffington Post is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, proving that a journalistic enterprise can thrive without paying a dime to most of the people who write for it.

Cancelled: Glee; The Mindy Project; State of Affairs; Parenthood; Parks and Recreation; The Blacklist; Chicago Fire; Chicago PD; Law & Order: SVU (after 17 years); The Mentalist; Two and a Half Men (after 12 years); plus 18 other television shows, most of which you never heard of, which is why they are being cancelled.

Driving Through History: At the Beechwood restaurant in Vicksburg you can get your shrimp fraaad, bawled, gree-eld, or brawled. The interior of the restaurant just about a mile down the road from the Vicksburg battlefield is decorated with portraits and histories of Confederate leaders and pictures of heroic generals on horses. Some of the staff and the customers are black and carry on ignoring the defenders of slavery.

The battlefield historical park is a giant hook of land that dwarfs and nearly surrounds the town. The earthworks have softened and rounded with age, but the alteration of the landscape is still there. Gen. Grant’s headquarters is now in sight of a cellphone tower, but the park is permanent and the guns face each other as if the Civil War never ended. For some people, it never has.

   Travelling north to Tennessee you can take the Natchez Trace, once the footpath of Mississippi boatmen returning upriver, or the Buford Pusser Highway, named for the moonshine-busting Tennessee sheriff. This is bass boat and all terrain vehicle country, where giant pieces of farm equipment with six-foot tires travel the road with passenger cars. You can visit Loretta Lynn’s dude ranch or Miranda’s giant adult store. They have truck parking.